Different Senses (4 page)

That was how my parents
put it anyway. Kelons and
banis
had intermarried a fair bit
over two centuries of colonisation, but we’d always considered
ourselves pure blood Kelon. Mum had hit the roof when she found her
baby boy was walking proof someone in our past had crossed the
racial divide. Why couldn’t I have inherited red hair from
my
banis
ancestor, instead of this stupid ‘gift’? Empathy had
wrecked my life.

As usual, thinking about this
stuff put me in a foul mood, and as usual, the owner of the chai
house ignored my temper, and took my order of spiced chai and egg
dosa in silence. She didn’t need to cultivate customers. Her place
was close enough to the business district to attract workers
looking for cheap, decent refreshment, and in the evenings, local
residents came down for inexpensive filling meals. If they didn’t
like her manners, they could go somewhere else that cost more, same
as I could.

I pulled up the media
screen at the table and read the news, trying to avoid the crime
reports, though my eyes kept going to them out of habit. I
recognised names of fellow cops, areas I’d patrolled, regular
problem makers, and crimes I’d worked hard all my career to solve
and prevent. It was picking at the wound and yet I couldn’t stop
myself. Maybe I
should
see someone. But I hated talking about any of it
because it made it more real, took me back to that day in the
hospital when the results of the Empathic Sensitivity test had
confirmed my worst fears. Empaths couldn’t be cops. It wasn’t fair
on the poor little criminals that I might have an advantage over
them and know when they were lying their arses off, like justice
was a bloody
game
and we all had to start with a level playing
field. I shouldn’t scowl at the
banis
in the city. I should walk
up to the nearest civil libertarian and kick him in the
nuts.

The waitress brought my chai
and food, and I had my first meal of the day. The dosa weren’t
terrific, but they were edible, and I’d never been fussy about
food. Used to drive Kirin crazy. He’d spend an hour titivating and
spicing and arranging things just so, and put the plate before me
only to have me eat it without comment. Food’s just food, you know?
I was grateful he cooked, sure, but I’d have eaten it without all
the messing around and he knew it. Still, much as my lack of
culinary sensibilities annoyed him, it had taken my empathy to
drive him away. Or have him stolen away.

“Javen?”

I jerked, my old lover’s voice
in my head suddenly coming from outside it. I looked up and saw the
handsome face that haunted my dreams. I stared, paralysed by
unpleasant surprise, then shoved away from the table.

“Nice to see you, Kirin.
Goodness, look at the time. Catch you round.” I grabbed my coat,
and headed to the door, pushing my ex out of my way. The owner
nodded slightly to me as I left but I ignored everything and
everyone in my need to get the fuck away from the man who’d
shredded my heart.

“Javen, wait!”

I walked faster. What in the
name of sainted reason was he doing here? If Yashi sent him, I’d
gut my brother with a rusty knife.

Running steps, and before I
could pick up my pace, Kirin grabbed my arm. “Wait, please! I need
to talk to you.”

I pulled away. “Too fucking
bad.”

“Please. Javen, I need
you.”

I glared at him narrow-eyed,
wishing my empathy worked both ways so he would know just how angry
I was. “Yeah? Bit late for that, friend. Devi’s your helpmate now.
Go ask him.”

“Javen, please. Please listen
to me. Damn it, it’s life or death!”

I made a rude noise. “Bullshit.
Cut the dramatics, Kirin. They never impressed me.”

“I’m serious. I...Javen, you’re
the only person who can help me.”

“Did Yashi send you here?”

“What? Of course not. I can’t
talk to him about this.” He ran his hand through his thick, wavy
hair. He looked good, damn his eyes. At least I’d shaved. “Look,
ten minutes. Twenty maximum. Please.”

“Why? Why should I?”

“Because I’m desperate.”

“
Yeah, right. Like I
didn’t know
that
,” I said, tapping my
forehead. “Another reason. You’re the one who gave me the excuse
not to give a shit, remember?”

He bit his lip while I did my
best to keep a mean expression on my face. Kirin’s puppy eyes were
pretty damn impressive but I wouldn’t soften. He’d blown his
chances with me.

“Javen, I’m staring at
financial ruin. Not just for me, everyone in my lab. Twenty
employees. Help them, if you won’t help me. Please?”

I sighed. “Fifteen minutes
maximum. Back in the chai house, and don’t make a scene because I
like that place and want to go back. For the record, you’re a prick
for coming anywhere near me right now.”

He wrung his hands, and I
wanted to tell him to stop the foppish gesture. But I didn’t. He
wasn’t my business any more. “I know. I didn’t know anyone else to
ask.”

“Always nice to be someone’s
last option.”

He winced, chagrined. Sometimes
he had no idea how he sounded. Better at food than people, was
Kirin.

I led the way back to the
chai house. The owner didn’t even lift an eyebrow at my sudden
reappearance, taking my paycard without the slightest change in her
emotions or expression as I ordered more chai.

I sat back and gave him my
hardest glare. “Okay, talk—fast and calm, and keep the sob stories
for someone who gives a fuck.”

He gulped, out of breath from
being hysterical and walking fast. “Evidence has gone missing at
the lab.”

“Missing as in stolen?” He
nodded. “So call the cops. I’m not on the force, remember?”

“I can’t.” He twisted his hands
like he was trying to wipe something nasty off them. “I’ll lose my
contractor’s license, and the owner of the evidence and the client
will both sue me. The insurance won’t cover it completely, and not
at all if it’s staff theft. They’ll claim I colluded in it.”

I held up my hand. “Back up.
What was stolen, who owns it, and what client? And who took it, do
you have any idea?”

He lowered his voice. “A
pendant belonging to Kajal Gemate, worth over a hundred thousand
dolar. Her husband’s lawyers sent it for DNA analysis as part of
their divorce case.”

I whistled quietly. “Man, you
picked some nice people to piss off. What happened?”

He waited for the chai I’d
ordered to be set in front of us, before continuing. “One of our
technicians logged it out to begin work on it. It was still in the
sealed evidence wallet, on his table, and he left it there—against
all our regulations—while he attended to an urgent call for
assistance from another employee. This was during the lunch break.
When he returned, the wallet and pendant was gone.”

“Sloppy, Kirin. You questioned
people?”

“Yes, and searched the lab
thoroughly. No trace. If we don’t hand the pendant back with our
results within ten days, I’ll have to admit what happened.”

“The chain of custody’s broken
anyway.”

“Yes, but we’re testing for the
presence of Shrimati Gemate’s alleged lover’s DNA. There’s no way
we could have contaminated the item with that. We just need it
back.”

I sipped my chai, pretending to
think, but really taking time to get my feelings under control. I
hadn’t seen Kirin in three months, and would have been glad not to
have seen him for another three years. He really had a fucking
nerve. Though I saw his problem. A lab losing an item that valuable
and in such a high profile divorce suit? The police force would
never use him again, and civilian clients would avoid him too
because the opposition in any court case would have a wonderful
time pointing out their chosen forensic laboratory was so
careless.

“Suspects?”

“You have to understand, I know
all these people very well. They’re friends.”

“And one of them’s a thief. How
many?”

“Five people, not including me,
were in the building. One of them is, um.”

“Um. You mean the little
bitch?”

His face took on a pinched
expression. “Devi, yes.”

“Well then. Look no
further.”

“Javen, that’s unfair.”

“He stole you, he could steal a
pendant. Case closed.”

“
He didn’t
steal
me.
I...left you.”

“You threw me out and three
weeks later Devi boy was unpacking his underwear in our old home.
Pardon me for not believing a bolt of lightning made you suddenly
appreciate our dear, dear friend after so long.”

“I don’t want to talk about
him. He didn’t do it.”

“Prove it.”

“I know him.”

“Uh huh.” He looked on the
verge of tears. “The others?”

“All technicians. All people I
trust completely. Javen, this has to be handled carefully. Any of
them could cause a scandal.”

“And again it comes back to,
why me? There are at least a dozen private investigators in Hegal.
Go ask one of them.”

“
I can’t
trust
them.”

“
And I can’t
trust
you.”

“I’ll pay.”

“I don’t care.”

“Please, Javen? For old times’
sake?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Oh
man, that was the wrong line to take. No. Piss off. Fifteen minutes
was up three minutes ago.”

He hung his head, and I drank
my chai, trying very hard not to care, or pay attention to the
misery and anxiety rolling off him. This wasn’t anything to do with
me twice over. Kirin wasn’t my lover, and I wasn’t a cop. He had a
hell of a nerve.

But the problem was, I still
felt like a cop in my head, and the more I thought about it, the
more it bugged me. I’d been in Kirin’s lab lots of times, both on
and off duty. It was a pretty slick outfit, lots of impressive
quality control and tracking procedures for evidence and material.
I’d never heard of the chain of custody being broken at his place,
and that was one of the reasons he got so much police work. The
screw up he described didn’t fit at all.

“I still don’t know why me,
Kirin. I’m a civilian. I can’t force anyone to talk to me, or
search anyone without permission. If I had an investigator’s
license, that’d be something, but I don’t.”

He gave me a brief hopeful
smile. “I thought you could use that...thing. To tell if any of
them were lying.”

My vision turned red from
rage. “Do you
actually
want me to punch you on the fucking nose?” I
spat. “That
thing
made you so afraid of me, disgusted you so much,
you dumped me after three years together. And now you want
to
use
it? Just go away. You make me sick. I mean it.”

The tears were back. “I’m
sorry. About all of it. I know I was wrong to say what I did...and
to ask you to leave.”

“Bit late now.”

He nodded. “Yes. I fucked it
all up, I know that. And now I’ve fucked this up. You’re right. I’m
sorry to...I’m just sorry.”

I didn’t watch him leave.
I stayed where I was because I wasn’t sure I could walk on legs
that had been cut out from under me. That miserable, selfish
bastard.
It wasn’t enough he had to rip my heart into bits, but now
he wanted to make pâté out of it too? I’d always known he was
self-centred but this? This was sociopathic.

I called Yashi at work. “Did
you tell that shithead where to find me?”

“Good afternoon, Javen. Nice of
you to call me. Which shithead are we talking about now?”

“Kirin. He’s just tried to drag
me into a stupid fucking mess of his own making. Someone told him
where to find me.”

“I might have mentioned a while
ago where you liked to eat breakfast, but I had no idea...sorry,
brother.” He sounded sincere. “You all right?”

“No.”

“That stupid bastard. I’d never
send him to you. You didn’t need this. I know what that would do to
you right now.”

“Yeah. Sorry I...never mind.
Um, I did some grocery shopping for you guys, and fixed that
leaking tap. Figured out what was causing it while I cleaned the
bathroom.”

“Thank you. Javen, you don’t
need to be our housekeeper. We love having you.”

“I know. I just want to...be
part of the family. Have a real role. You know, not as a favour,
but because you expect it. You’re entitled to expect it.”

“Oh. Well, okay. I’ll work out
what you can help with, and put you into the routine. The
babysitting’s a big thing for us, though. Hard to find people we
trust, and the kids adore you.”

“I adore them back. Uh...better
let you go.”

“Yeah. You could drop by the
clinic if you like.”

“I might, sure. Later.”

I hung up and stared into
space.
Trust.
Such a loaded word, and one Kirin had no right
to use. He’d betrayed me. I’d needed him and he kicked me out. The
first real test we’d faced and he failed it.

Like I’d just failed his test,
though he had no business setting it. “For old times’ sake.” Give
me a break. I didn’t owe him a thing.

But there was something I
could get from this—proof that I was the bigger man. Proof that the
‘freak’, as he’d called me in a frightened rage, could do something
he couldn’t. Proof that he’d traded down when he’d gone for that
little lying weasel, and if Devi was guilty I would
so
enjoy
proving
that
.

I thought about it some
more, then called a number I was slightly surprised to find I
hadn’t deleted. “Kirin? I’ll do it. I’ll come to the lab and
you
keep
your mouth shut. Especially to fucking Devi, right?”